


New Group: 'Spidey Squad'

by MCUsic_to_my_ears



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Awesome Michelle Jones, Depression, F/M, Gen, Group Me, Group Messages, Group texts, Michelle Jones Is a Good Bro, Michelle Jones Needs a Hug, Ned Leeds is a Good Bro, Nightmares, Panic Attacks, Peter Parker Angst, Peter Parker Deserves Better, Peter Parker Has Issues, Peter Parker Has Nightmares, Peter Parker Has Panic Attacks, Peter Parker Has a Family, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Peter Parker is a Mess, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Protective May Parker (Spider-Man), Protective Michelle Jones, Reverse Chronology, Sensory Overload, Spider-Man: Far From Home (Movie) Spoilers, Texting, Trauma, Twitter, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-07
Updated: 2019-07-07
Packaged: 2020-06-23 18:04:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19706656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MCUsic_to_my_ears/pseuds/MCUsic_to_my_ears
Summary: MJ gets notifications that she's been added to the Spidey Squad and the FoS group chats. Searching through them, she learns what being family to a superhero means. She learns that she is ready to take on that role.





	New Group: 'Spidey Squad'

Prague was... a lot. Not just the trauma of the ancient fire monster or discovering that said fire monster was all smoke and mirrors. But being right about Peter. About Spider-Man. That was what was eating up at her the most as she mindlessly scrolled through Twitter, trying to ignore Brad's stares when a notification in Group Me popped up. Since she only used the app for Aca Dec, she clicked on it immediately, prepared for any snarky questions about whether she thought the Elementals would fall under the current events or history categories. Instead, it was an invitation to a new group: 'Spidey Squad'. A moment later, she was added to a second group: 'FoS'. She glanced around the hotel lobby to see Ned give her a slight head nod, which confirmed that he was username  _ Chair-Man. _ He tucked his phone away as Betty approached and soon he was too preoccupied with being disgustingly adorable to help her navigate this new world she was entering. 

She opened the 'Spidey Squad' group chat first-the icon being a poorly constructed photoshop of Spider-Man as the nonsense SpongeBob meme-then clicked on Members. It listed Ned as the owner-no surprise there-as well as Peter, May, and Tony, although next to his name was the word 'deactivated'. And now herself. The most recent text was from Peter on the first day of their trip, reading  _ 'Thanks for the suit @May 😒' _ May had liked the text, but not otherwise responded. Above that was an exchange between Peter and Ned about suit upgrades sent a month before, with Peter refusing any suggestions that would include changing the original design. Before that was a series of selfies of Peter in the suit, on patrol with comments about what he had seen or when he'd be home. These dated back to a few months after the Blip until school getting out. MJ hadn't noticed it, but Spider-Man really hadn't been out after finals, only a few public appearances for charities. In the two month period between the Blip and Peter going back on patrol, there were two texts. They were from Ned, stating,  _ 'Did he get home?'  _ then, _ 'Wrong chat nvm'. _

MJ hesitated before continuing the scroll up past the five year gap, the only person left to text in the time being Tony Stark, who never said anything. She didn't blame him. The last text before the Decimation was from Peter.  _ 'Walking a girl home, going to be back late, dw!' _ All his innocence, his wonder sat there. MJ missed that. The Peter she knew now was harder. Still kind, but far more guarded. He looked at an extended hand wearily now, waiting for it to be pulled back. He was a lot more like her, something she wouldn't wish on her worst enemy. 

She scrolled up through another series of selfies and panoramas, some of which she recognized from Spider-Man's Twitter page, until she found the last text sent by Tony Stark, dated three months before the Snap.  _ 'Peter in his natural habitat', _ it read, with an image of Peter asleep next to a boiling flask and an open jar of peanut butter, wearing the top half of the Spider Suit and joggers. Hours later, Peter replied,  _ 'Thanks a lot dad 😧'. _ MJ smiled slightly. She continued up after downloading the image, but not much else of interest appeared until the creation of the group, which was on September 27th when Ned added Peter and May to the 'Arachnids Anonymous' group, as it was originally called. 

_ 'Ned knew?' _ May asked-the first message in the group. 

_ 'New phone, who 'dis?' _ Peter wrote back, then changed his nickname from 'Lord of Physics' to 'Spider-Man'. Ned changed it again to 'Spider-Kid', which May liked. In retaliation, Peter changed Ned's name to 'Chair-Man'. Tony was added a few minutes later by Peter, who immediately changed his username to 'IronDad'. MJ smiled. Peter deserved all the affection he could get, especially from someone as outwardly callous as Tony Stark. 

"Well, kids, it's ten o'clock which means curfew!" Mr. Harrington announced, drawing her attention away from the messages. MJ rolled her eyes, but shut off her phone, tapping his against her knee. Dresses without pockets were the work of the patriarchy. There wasn't a doubt in her mind. "Skedaddle upstairs, all of you! And no switching bedrooms, I see you, Leeds!" Suddenly aware, he looked around the lobby. "Where's Parker?"

Ned blanched. "Uh, he's, uh, in the bathroom." 

Brad perked up from his spot halfway up the stairs. "He hasn't come back yet-" He interjected, eyeing MJ. "- from his walk with Michelle." 

She groaned mentally. "Peter's on the phone with his aunt." 

"Something about staying with family in Berlin," Ned added quickly. "He'll be back soon." 

"He better be," Mr. Harrington grumbling, shooing students upstairs. "No more disappearing on this trip, you hear me." 

"Yes, sir," Ned chorused back, holding Betty's hand as they walked to their floor, nuzzling each other. MJ couldn't tell if she was sick or jealous. Probably sick, she decided. 

Once in her own hotel room, she plugged in her phone, got into her pajamas, and opened the FoS group chat. She wasn't sure what it stood for, but hoped that it would become apparent soon enough. The members of this chat included many of the same people: Ned, May, and a deactivated Tony, who was somehow still the owner of the group. But instead of Peter, there was a Karen and a Happy, neither of whom she knew nor had profile pictures. Sighing, she began reading through old texts. The most recent one was from an hour ago. May had typed,  _ Just saw news of a web slinging Night Monkey fighting a fire monster in Europe. Is that Peter? @Chair-Man what is going on? Call me.  _ Happy had liked the text. Since there wasn't a reply, MJ assumed Ned had called her, as he had been active adding her to the chat and must have seen that text. 

Unlike the other chat, which was very light-hearted and mostly kept track of the good things Spider-Man encountered on a daily basis, this group had a much sadder tone. MJ first noticed it when she came across a calendar event set for the same time and date as when the notification it was sent out by Ned. The event name was simply 'Panic Attack'. In the details was a description of the cause-an overheard discussion of Greek Titans-and a note that Peter didn't want to talk about it. Curious, MJ clicked on the calendar and found it filled with records of panic attacks, nightmares, sensory overloads and depressed moods that seemed to plague Peter. They came in clusters of several days overrun by dysfunction followed by two or so weeks of relative calm. The cycle was only ever interrupted by a new trauma, it seemed, which were also recorded in the calendar. MJ took a moment to add the battle with the Elemental to the date before returning to the messages. Scrolling up, it was mostly questions about Peter's wellbeing and whereabouts, which explained Ned's misplaced inquiry from before. Every text had an underlying stress that MJ didn't yet understand but knew would soon consume her. 

About two months back, she came across one of the longer texts from May, reading,  _ 'I'm taking away the suit. He's on house arrest. If anyone lets him back on patrol before he's fully healed AND rested, I will personally come for you. The PT isn't working and I'm not letting him take any more risks.' _ Ned and Happy both liked the message. MJ scrolled up a little bit further to discover why Peter was banned from web slinging. Two weeks before finals, he had gotten shot while stopping a mugging. While appalled that she hadn't even noticed, MJ also wasn't sure why they were so concerned. Superheroing was dangerous. It seemed like getting shot would be a, while still awful, fairly regular occurrence, but the other FoS group members continued to attribute the PT to Peter's lack of bullet wounds, and MJ was fairly certain it didn't stand for physical therapy.

She found her answer in February of that year. Ned wrote,  _ 'Peter just told me he has a sort of sixth sense?!?? Which is why he's never gotten seriously hurt?!?!? Like, he just knows when danger is coming and it helps him react to it faster than anyone else could. Did anyone else know about this??' _

To which May replied,  _ 'Yes. We call it the Peter Tingle.' _

_ 'We??' _ Ned inquired. 

_ 'Me and Happy' _

_ '😡' _

Then the mysterious Karen, who generally only gave brief reports of Peter's safety and location when asked, offered,  _ 'Peter refers to this ability as his Spidey Sense.' _

Ned liked the text, but sent,  _ '*Peter Tingle' _ back childishly anyway. This exchange was one of the few non-disaster-induced ones contained in the chat. 

MJ wanted to tease Peter about his tingle, but she knew now wasn't the right time. Besides, he was probably halfway across Europe at this point. He had more important tasks at hand. Instead, she continued her search upwards. The first communication after the Blip was a series of event creations, the first being the battle trauma, then Tony's death, followed by a series of panic attacks and sensory overloads, along with regular nightmares for a month. The only text contained was from Ned, who wrote,  _ 'Peter won't stop crying. I mentioned our Death Star and he just broke down. He's locked in the bathroom and he won't talk to me. What should I do?' _ There was no reply. 

The only activity during Shadow Period was by Tony, who retroactively added two battles and Peter's death to the calendar.

A month or two before that, and Happy was added to the group. A few days later, Ned changed the name from 'Peter Parker Protection Peeps' to 'FoS'. Happy's first action was to like the new name, which Ned, of course, freaked out about. 

Before that, there were a few clumped mental health events, which came at a slower rate than after the Blip, and several exchanges between May and Tony about when Peter would be home before she got to the top of the channel.

The group was created a few days after the Homecoming dance before the Decimation, when Tony added May and Karen to an unnamed group. May added Ned, who after inquiring about the group's purpose _ -'To keep an eye on our favorite web slinger,' _ Tony informed him-changed its name to 'Peter Parker Protection Peeps', then to the 'P4' then back again. Ned then changed the icon to be an image of Peter laying on the floor surrounded by legos, seemingly groaning. Tony changed it to be Peter creating what MJ assumed to be web fluid in a lab, beaming at whoever-presumably Tony-was taking the photo. Ned liked the change. MJ hovered over Tony's earlier text for a moment before liking it herself. Protecting that lovable dork… definitely something she would undertake. No matter the risks.

This thought was only heightened when, weeks later, the video of Beck leaked, revealing Spider-Man's true identity, Peter swooped MJ back up despite her insistence on never swinging again and holed them up in May's apartment until she got off work. He paced nervously, texting Miss. Potts every minute or so. He kept the mask on to help mitigate any extra-sensory issues that normally wouldn't bother him, but had changed into soft pajama pants and Tony's oversized MIT hoodie. He jumped when his phone buzzed for the first time since the news broke. MJ looked down to see her matching notification from Ned.

_ 'Looks like we're going to have to add 7 billion people to this gm' _

MJ rolled her eyes, but couldn't help but add to the levity in the 'Spidey Squad' chat.  _ '3.2 billion' _ she replied. Then added,  _ 'Everyone else doesn't have internet access, check your privilege'  _

When MJ saw little hearts pop up on all the texts in their exchange, each from Peter, even though she could feel his anxiety from where he stood on the other side of the room, she knew Peter would be alright. He had the Friends of Spider-Man looking after him. He had his family. 


End file.
